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Please be advised that this information was generated on 2021-09-26 and may be subject to change. KUNSTKAMMER OBJECTS IN MUSEUMS OF INDUSTRIAL ARTS: BANISHMENT OR USEFUL DESTINATION?

Lieske Tibbe

Summary expansion of this initially very modest collection, The point of departure for this essay is the cur- a specific passage attracted my attention. She rent literature on nineteenth-century Museums mentions the acquisition of the Royal Cabinet of Industrial Arts (later referred to as Museums (Königliche Kunstkammer), handed over by Kai- of Applied Arts). Usually it begins with the 1851 ser Wilhelm I in 1875, as being of great impor- World Fair in London followed by the founda- tance for the museum,. At the time, the Kunst tion of the South Kensington Museum, a cata- kammer collection was on show at the Neues lyst that inspired many European nations to Museum. Mundt writes: create museums promoting their own national Er übergab ihm [= the Museum für Kunst industries and handicrafts. In the historiography und Gewerbe, LT] in diesen Jahre 6500 of these museums, it will be found that older kunstgewerbliche Objekte der königlichen and different forms of exhibiting applied art Kunstkammer (…), um ihnen einen sinnvol- are usually neglected, or dealt with in a nega- leren Platz zu geben als in der bisherigen, ei- tive manner. The nineteenth century use of ner Verbannung gleichkommenden Aufstel- pejorative terms will be analyzed. These relate lung im obersten Stockwerk des Königlichen to these older cabinets, as well as to cultural- Museums.1 historical collections presented in a ‘picturesque’ In the nineteenth century, the Royal Cabinet setting. In this connection, the views of Marius was described in similar terms, for instance in Vachon, who visited Museums of Industrial Arts the 1881 Festschrift at the inauguration of the throughout Europe, will be crucial. new building of the Museum für Kunst und As examples, I shall move back and forth be- Gewerbe. Recalling the situation of the Kunst tween the Prussian Brandenburg Kunstkam- kammer in the Neues Museum, the author mer and the Dutch Royal Cabinet of Curiosi- wrote: ties. Many aspects of the vicissitudes of the Was sich hier in drei Sälen und zwei kleinen remaining parts of both former Kunstkammer Nebenräumen zusammenfand, war sehr weit collections are comparable – in Berlin as well as davon entfernt, ein einheitliches Ganzes zu in Holland they were transferred several times, bilden. Es war eben der Restbestand alles and every transition meant a reorientation. To dessen, was noch nicht zu selbständigen or- conclude, the shifts in meaning of collections ganischen Sammlungen ausgebildet war. Der and objects will be related to feelings of nation- Ballast zufällig zusammengeträgenen Raritä- al identity and international competition. ten lag erdrückend auf den wirklich werth- vollen, zum Teil mit den erlesensten Schätzen Progress versus Lumber versehenen Gruppen der Sammlung.2 In the founding study by Barbara Mundt, Die deutschen Kunstgewerbemuseen im 19. Jahr- 1 Mundt 1974, 43. The Neue Museum together with the hundert, published some 35 years ago, the Alte Museum were also called Königliches Museum (Royal Museum). Deutsches Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in 2 Kunstgewerbe-Museum 1881/1981, 26. On that occasion Berlin, founded in 1867, is described as one of the institution was renamed Königliches Kunstgewerbe- museum. See also Barbara Segelken’s contribution in this the first examples. In Mundt’s description of the volume.

177 Mundt’s terminology of Verbannung (banish- Earlier collections asssembled to enhance the ment) and sinnvolleren Platz (a more useful level of handicraft and industry by visual ex- destination) is related to the nineteenth-cen- amples – some modest examples existed as tury pejoratives Ballast (lumber) and Raritäten early as around 1800 – are mostly dealt with (curiosities). The image of neglected or forgot- as preliminary to the development that began ten collections in old cabinets, needing to be in 1851. Other kinds of collections, such as the rescued by incorporation in modern museums still extant cabinets of curiosities or cultural- of decorative art, is a central assumption in historical collections, were either overlooked or many nineteenth-century publications on mu- described in disparaging terms, however excel- seums of applied or decorative art. Their frame lent their content. Even in the case of period of reference is a line of development starting rooms, this approach to exhibiting objects was from the 1851 World Fair in London, where seen as ‘cluttered’ and ‘disorganized’ and con- many countries exhibiting the products of their sequently of little use. national industries were forced to face up to However, in the last 35 years many studies on their shortcomings. On the other hand, critics these older cabinets and their collections have complained of the ugliness and tastelessness of been published; in fact one could say that spe- objects produced on a large scale in the tech- cialisation is flourishing within art-historical and nologically advanced countries. Anxiety for in- cultural-historical research. The image present- ternational competition as well as concern for ed in those studies is not at all one of mustiness the moral standard of the population – which and dust – on the contrary, even in the nine- was thought to be related to the quality of its teenth century when they were past their peak, handicraft and industry – inspired governments cabinets were still attractive to the general and civil organizations to attempt to enhance public.4 Often specific parts of their collections the aesthetic level of industrial products. Great (as for instance coins, gems, Greek and Roman Britain, the leading industrial nation at the time, sculpture) were transferred to new national mu- was also the first to set up an educational sys- seums, but as long as the cabinets existed new tem to fight against the supposed ugliness. The objects were acquired by purchase or donation. South Kensington system was based on the idea of nationwide interconnected drawing In this article, the transformations of the Prus- schools and museums of industrial art, and the sian Brandenburg Kunstkammer and the Dutch heart of this system was the South Kensington Royal Cabinet of Curiosities during the nine- School of Design and its museum, the present teenth century will serve as examples. The vi- Victoria & Albert Museum. Completed at the cissitudes experienced by the two cabinets are time of the second World Fair in 1862, the comparable, as they were both re-installed South Kensington Museum and School were after the Napoleonic lootings and the remains visited by many admirers from overseas, who of the eighteenth-century cabinets were amply propagated and eventually copied the system supplied by new acquisitions,5 until eventually in their own countries. The first ‘copy’ was the the original eighteenth-century royal collections Österreichisches Museum für Kunst und Indus- ended up forming only a small part of the cabi- trie in Vienna (1864), while the next one was nets. In the course of the century both collec- the abovementioned museum in Berlin (1868).3 tions were moved several times and their con- The terminology used to describe these new museums is one of resurrection after decline, 4 See for instance: Hildebrand/Theuerkauff 1981; Van Wezel of life and progress after stagnation or death. 2003a, 204-208; Röber 2001. For the Royal Cabinet of Cu- riosities in The Hague see: Lunsingh Scheurleer 1946 and 3 Cf. Conforti 1998, 23-47, and Trippi 1998, 79-88. See also 1956; Van der Ham 2000, 64-68, 88-96; Effert 2003. Schwabe 1866. 5 Dreier 1981, 36.

178 tents drastically reduced; by the 1870s however the residue of both was still substantial. The cabinets were also dissolved at roughly the same time. The Berlin collection, as mentioned before, was transferred to the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in 1875. The Royal Cabinet of Curiosities in The Hague, after its re-organization into the Netherlands Museum of History and Art in 1876, was finally liquidated when this museum was moved to Amsterdam. This process of splitting up was a long-drawn out one, lasting from 1883 till 1888.

Dead and inactive museums In 1881, the Königliches Kunstgewerbemu- seum (recently moved to its new housing, the present Gropiusbau), was visited by the French- man Marius Vachon (1850 – 1928), an art critic and author of several publications on art, architecture and the applied arts. His report (fig. 1) was mainly concerned with the organization of the museum, with the content being largely Fig. 1 First page of Vachon’s article ‘Le Musée des arts treated as secondary, although he did mention industriels à Berlin’, in Gazette des beaux-arts 1883, the pieces of furniture (sans grande valeur ar- with example of an ‘altdeutsche’ chair tistique), the large quantity of textiles, and the published an extensive report on museums and Lüneberger Ratssilber, acquired in 1874. Nei- other educational institutes of industry and art ther does he refer to the former Königliche in Germany, the Austrian-Hungarian monarchy, Kunstkammer, though the number of objects in Italy and Russia – the first volume in a series of the museum that originated from this collection such reports on industrial education through- was considerable. Probably this omission had out Europe. Once again the Berlin museum was to do with his republican convictions, as what highly praised, especially for its systematic pres- pleased him most was the idea of this museum entation in most rooms, with chronological se- being a ‘mixed institution’, state-supported but quences of objects, some classified according to initiated and directed by the Berlin Gewerbe materials, others according to their function. As verein, a civilian institution which in his opinion for the Bavarian National Museum, he seems to was necessary for decisiveness and flexibility. have revised his opinion. Having been reorgan- Vachon made an unfavourable comparison be- ized, the museum looked orderly and its objects tween the Berlin museum and the Bavarian Na- were displayed in a functional and logical man- tional Museum in München, a state institution ner. Thus, the museum was no longer, a musée and in his view a very passive kind of museum, de curiosités, d’objets d’art dans le genre du ‘This is really a museum in the strict sense of the Musée de Cluny.7 term, telle que les musées du Louvre, de Cluny Vachon seems to have disapproved of the Lou- et du Luxembourg‘.6 Two years later (1883) Va- vre, and, even more so, of the Cluny Museum, chon, commissioned by the French government, viewing them as museums of decorative art. In

6 Vachon 1883. 7 Vachon 1885, 12-15, 87-92 and 109-113.

179 his opinion, collections of beautiful old objects his report on Denmark for instance, he hardly just exposed as such, could only arouse ‘retro- mentions the museum in Rosenborg Castle in spective sentiments’.8 In Budapest, Stockholm, Copenhagen, where the layout was very evoca- and in his own country at Toulouse, Angers, tive of a Kunstkammer, simply remarking that Nantes and Lille, he found museums or collec- the Louvre and Cluny might envy its precious tions he disqualified as un petit Cluny or Cluny contents.14 If he had visited the Brandenburg en miniature: picturesque, but retrospective Kunstkammer before 1875, when it was still and so only existing for the sake of curiosity and housed in the Neue Museum, he surely would bookishness, sans autre objectif que celui de la have called it a Cluny en miniature, due to as curiosité pure et simple. 9 well as the lack of systematic presentation, as To Vachon, ‘Cluny’ seems to have been a by- its showing of religious art in an appropriately word for disorder and even slovenliness, though Gothic Sternensaal.15 he also labels it as ‘picturesque’. In an article After all his explorations in European countries, in the Gazette des Beaux Arts he complains of Vachon concluded in his final report that organ- the shortage of space leading to overcrowded izers and directors of real museums of industrial rooms and corridors containing objects of great art were not at all interested in collections of value, which were overlooked as a result.10 It is history and scholarship (collections historiques remarkable that he paid no attention to the mu- et d’érudition), which only satisfied the needs seum’s very evocative ‘period rooms’, such as the of art-lovers (amateurs), collectors, and writ- famous Chambre du François 1er, arranged by ers of academic studies. What those directors the founder of the museum Alexandre du Som- of real museums sought were singular objects, merard, elaborating on the tradition of Alexan- outstanding examples of taste, elegance and dre Lenoir’s Musée des monumens français.11 perfect craftmanship, or others that were valu- Du Sommerard’s son and successor, Edmond du able in a technical sense, as examples of manu- Sommerard, justified this kind of presentation in facturing processes.16 But to whom were the his catalogue, saying that in former times there Louvre and the Cluny Museum of any interest? existed a distinct, intimate connection between In his view their only public would have been architecture, decoration and furnishing of a the promeneurs (‘idle strollers’) and amateurs, building. This lost connection could be recon- desiring to embellish their ignorance with hazy structed by exhibiting complete interiors within erudition, and archeologists, ambitious to write a suitable architectural setting.12 In 1883 when academic treatises, or merchants of second- Du Sommerard wrote these words, exhibiting hand objects, always eager to learn a new sales by way of ‘period rooms’ or ‘period units’ was trick or two. And who were the visitors of the becoming more common in museums of deco- sleepy Musée de Céramique de Sèvres? Appar- rative art, including some of those visited by ently it was patronised by foreigners, tourists Vachon. However, he preferred either to ignore and Parisians strolling in the park of Saint Cloud. them or dismiss them with notes like ‘(…) this According to Vachon, a really active, effective museum is neither a Cluny, nor a museum of museum of industrial art should have a com- decorative art (…)’ (Report on Edinburgh).13 In prehensible classification system, preferably according to material or technique and the Berlin

8 Vachon 1885, 93. Kunstgewerbemuseum satisfied his demands 9 Vachon 1885, 35 (Budapest); Vachon 1888b, 67-68 (Stock- in many ways. ‘Everything is functional, com- holm); Vachon 1897, 162-163, 243, 257, 332-333 (French towns). 10 Vachon 1877. 14 Vachon 1888b, 36. See for the layout in Rosenborg: 11 See amongst others. Bann 1984, 77- 92. Gundestrup 1985. 12 Du Sommerard 1883, XVIII. 15 Röber 2001, 96-99. 13 Vachon 1890, 187. 16 Vachon 1894, 13.

180 Fig. 2 Back cover of the French edition of the Guide to the Royal Cabinet of Curiosities (Guide n.d.), showing the Mauritshuis where the collection was housed, Photo: Rijksmuseum Amsterdam bined and arranged with a view to the devel- reorganizing as a new museum, equipped in ac- opment of the industrial arts in Germany. The cordance with modern principles, comparable collections were mainly confined to objects fit to the South Kensington Museum.18 In 1873, to serve the artistic and technical instruction of the lawyer and art connoisseur Victor de Stuers, artists, industrialists and craftsmen, while book- published a renowned essay called Holland op ishness and curiosity are rigorously expelled’.17 zijn smalst (Holland at its narrowest), criticiz- ing the Dutch authorities for their lack of care In Holland, similar rhetoric circulated concerning of the national cultural heritage, including the the Royal Cabinet of Curiosities (fig. 2). Around public collections. The Royal Cabinet of Curiosi- 1860 the state of this Cabinet was the subject ties did not escape his criticism: of public and even parliamentary discussions. How that pawnshop is looking, left (…) to Objects suffered neglect and were kept in a dis- decay, being an object of derision for every orderly fashion in small rooms. The catalogue foreigner. (…) If God had ordered Noah to hardly deserved to be called such. Although gather two objects of any possible nature, the cabinet was visited frequently, it was said without giving him time to order their ar- that the public was only after some sort of fair- rangement, I think this would have resulted ground attraction. From various quarters it was in a pile of junk (…) looking like this col- urged that the collection desperately needed lection. If one were permitted to carry out an excavation, one would find, alongside 17 Vachon 1899, 131-133 en 201-203. Cf. Du Sommerard splendid pieces of embossed metalwork, of 1883, XX. According to Du Sommerard the – ever increasing – public of the Musée de Cluny was primarily com- 18 Lunsingh Scheurleer 1956, 291-298; Van der Ham 2000, posed of d’artisans et de travailleurs. 110-115; Effert 2003, 59-62.

181 enamels, of ceramic art, or delightful Chi- Looking backward or forward nese and Japanese porcelains and fabrics, a So what was the real meaning of terms such large quantity of peculiar but out-of-place as ‘lumber rooms’, ‘retrospective’, ‘deathly’ or fig leafs, belonging to New Caledonian la- ‘for curiosity only’? Vachon’s reproach that the dies, and other little odds and ends of vari- Cluny Museum was only of interest to amateurs, ous provenance, which arrived here nobody collectors and holiday-makers, was related to knows how – waxen flowers, cut-out dolls, contemporary practices of collecting. In particu- the Lord’s Prayer in fifty copies engraved on a lar the collecting of medieval art – medieval and ten-cent piece, and other such fine things!.19 early Renaissance art were specialities of this A significant incentive to de Stuers to write his museum – had its origins in the romantic fas- ‘Holland at its narrowest’ had been the export cination with the Middle Ages in the first dec- of an important piece of Dutch art, the seven- ades of the nineteenth century. Wealthy private teenth-century rood screen of the cathedral of collectors set about transforming their homes Saint John at ’s-Hertogenbosch that had been and interiors in picturesque medieval fashion, acquired by the South Kensington Museum.20 mixing objects and furniture in an eclectic way. Indignation over the loss of a national monu- The director of the Cluny Museum, Alexandre ment as well as admiration for the London du Sommerard had been a passionate collector museum inspired him to propose the founding himself, and his display in the museum in the of a Netherlands Museum of History and Art 1830s was directly related to the abundance of with a view to stimulating the industry of the such private collectors of colourful and romantic nation. In 1866 he wrote a report on the Brit- interiors. This display of ‘period rooms’ at the ish system of education in the arts and crafts, Cluny Museum was intended to revive the ‘at- Rapport over de teekenscholen in Engeland, in mosphere’ of the Middle Ages, with architec- which he attributed the flourishing of the Eng- ture, furniture and other objects combining to lish ceramic industry directly to the influence of suggest an organic whole where each object South Kensington.21 In 1875 Victor de Stuers was in harmony with the entire setting. Thus was appointed as Head of the Department of the museum functioned as a romantic refuge Arts and Sciences at the Ministry of the Inte- for the visitor.22 rior, an appropriate position for an advocate of Ideologically, this manner of museum display is a Netherlands Museum of History and Art. In linked to romantic nationalism, a cultural-his- 1875 this museum, incorporating parts of the torical and nationalist view of history as a reac- Royal Cabinet of Curiosities, opened its doors tion to the Enlightenment and the Revolution. in The Hague and its first director was David This approach implied a quest for a homogene- van der Kellen Jr., whom we shall meet again ous community of people, rooted in a region at a later stage. or nation. The past was idealized and imagined as more or less static, with fractions, schisms 19 De Stuers 1873, 344-346. and changes being conveniently forgotten. In 20 Victor 1975, 23-24. See for the acquisition of this choir Metahistory, Hayden White’s study of how the screen by the South Kensington Museum: Wainwright 2002, 167-168. nineteenth century tackled the writing of histo- 21 De Stuers/Salverda 1880. Three years later, the Royal Anti- ry, this vision is labelled ‘organicistic’ and based quarian Society (Koninklijk Oudheidkundig Genootschap) published the report, Een museum van kunst voor de ni- on the idea of a central principle or essential jverheid (A Museum of Art for Industry; Franken 1869), meaning guiding all individual phenomenon. also with references to the South Kensington Museum. Most often it was related to a conservative The Royal Antiquarian Society was a civil association of prominent private persons, which had been collecting remarkable objects and providing financial funding for a 22 Bann 1984, 79-92, and Emery/ Morowitz 2004, 287-290. new national museum from 1858 onwards. See Heijbroek For the collecting of medieval art in the Netherlands see 1995, 13-14. Kruijsen 2002.

182 world-view that accorded with its view of the their former owners, to former times, or to the past. White noted that professional historians divine. That invisible something in the back- dismissed this organicistic vision as speculative ground, is the source of the public’s fascination and unscholarly23, indeed one that was suited with those objects.25 to writers of historical romance, collectors and In the case where the underlying concept, the other amateurs. unifying principle of a collection loses its impact, Directly opposed to this was the concept of ‘ac- this does not mean that the objects become tive’ museums of industrial art, where historical meaningless. Collections are broken up and ob- connections were torn apart to show separate jects are transferred to other kinds of collections developments in individual sections of indus- and acquire new meanings in new relationships try. To a leather worker, a technical knowledge to other objects.26 Seen in this light, it is worth of pottery manufacture was of no use, any examining the successive meanings attached to more than a stone-cutter could learn anything the objects in the Brandenburg-Prussian Kunst by looking at textiles. Sometimes the tearing kammer and the Dutch Royal Cabinet of Curi- apart was drastic, with textiles being cut into osities in the nineteenth century. When these pieces, architectural fragments heaped into job cabinets were reinstalled after the Napoleonic lots and the separate pieces scattered around period, it would appear that memories of pre- various museums.24 The gaps which were left in revolutionary times were still a determining the collections of authentic pieces, were filled factor and the concept underlying eighteenth- by plaster casts or copies, quite the opposite of century cabinet collections had not entirely van- Cluny’s unified cultural-historical presentations. ished. This concept visualised the universe as a In the museum of art and industry, the object ‘Great Chain of Being’, a static world-view with- was individualized, particularized and separated in which in essence every phenomenon could from history in order to serve progress. From be reduced to a specific position, and within this utilitarian point of view, a picturesque and which everything was worthy of admiration evocative arrangement did indeed stand for and study as part of God’s creation.27 At the conservatism and stagnation. beginning of the century, this principle seems to have prevailed both in Berlin and The Hague, Shifts in meaning as the purchasing policy of both cabinets was The topic of particularization of the object leads similarly diverse, with private collections being directly to a consideration of shifts in the mean- acquired that had been compiled for a variety ing of an object, when the context of presen- of reasons. On the other hand, in both cases tation has changed. Here mention should be during the first half of the century, specimens made of the philosopher Krysztof Pomian, and of naturalia, paintings and Classical sculpture, his defining of objects in collections as sémio- followed by exotic objects, were separated from phores, objects that have lost their practical the cabinets and became independent collec- value – or that at any rate are no longer used – tions. The remnants of the ‘mother’ collections but to which a special significance is attributed. however were still multiform in character and They have a reference to something invisible, to as mentioned above, the Dutch Royal Cabinet of Curiosities was criticized in the 1870s by De

23 White 1973, 15-16, 25-26, 95. 24 As for instance a pair of Italian fifteenth-century candlesticks, acquired in 1828 by the Kunstkammer, one 25 Pomian 1987, 12-20, and Pomian 2003, 7-15. of which was exchanged with the Amsterdam art dealer 26 Pomian has demonstrated such shifts in meaning in his Rosenberg for objects belonging to the Welfenschatz, study, ‘À propos des vases des Médicis’ (in: Pomian 2003, and which is now in the Rijksmuseum at Amsterdam, see 147-161), in which he followed the vicissitudes of a set of the catalogue Leeuwenberg/Halsema-Kubes 1973, 374 precious antique vases through the ages. (no. 629). 27 Lovejoy 1950, 144-145, 183-186, 242-245.

183 cial factors that lent meaning to the artefacts were their rarity, their capacity to amaze or that they came from distant continents. Between the 1820s and 1860s the two cabinets showed distinct differences in their approach to collecting objects of interest. The Ber- lin Kunstkammer supplemented its collection with objects of artistic value (Kunsthandwerk) and gradually disposed of its ethnographic and exotic objects, until finally in 1844 the ethnographic collection was catalogued as an independent collection.30 In the meantime, the Dutch cabinet acquired three extensive collections of Japanese objects.31 A new phase in the existence of both cabinets occurred at the time of their rehousing. In Ber- lin in 1858 the cabinet moved from the Stadt- schloss to the Neue Museum, and that in The Hague in 1875/76 went from the Mauritshuis to the nearby Netherlands Museum of History and Art. These transfers were marked by a conceptual transition in the policy of collecting, towards one that was more based on cultural history. To some degree, the colourful content Fig. 3 First page of the Guide to the Royal Cabinet of Curiosities (Van de Kasteele n.d.), of the cabinets lent itself to the presentation of Photo: Rijksmuseum Amsterdam such a view of history; a variety of remarkable objects had to be integrated into an ensemble Stuers, for its large quantity of ‘silly’ objects.28 suggesting an atmosphere of past times. But, In the 1824 Guide (Handleiding) to this cabi- also in accordance with the concept of cultural net (fig. 3) the contents of the collection are history, the accent gradually shifted from admi- specified as modelled, cut, and otherwise made ration for the wonders of the universe towards sculpture, artefacts of wood, ivory, mother-of- national history and identity.32 pearl, tortoise-shell, polished stones, porcelain, The result of this shift was evident in the 1871 fine ceramics, crystal, glass, masterpieces in catalogue of the Berlin collection, showing gold and silver, brassware, multicoloured lac- a systematic classification of objects – as the quer-work, laboratory instruments, musical in- curator Ledebur explained, in order to express struments, furniture, utensils, vessels, articles of the original but now invisible character of the use, jewellery, costume and items of adornment collection, being cramped for space in small for men and women, calligraphy, inks, pens, rooms.33 sheets of paper, manuscripts and books, plans and maps, paperworks, drawings and paintings, 30 Röber 2001, 15; see also Van Wezel 2001, 188-190. tools, coins, arms, and ‘all kinds of amusing and 31 Effert 2003, 192-211. rare things’.29 Apparently at the time, the cru- 32 Röber 2001, 3-31, Van Wezel 2001, 188-190, Effert 2003, 43-49 and 64-159, 200-206. 33 Ledebur 1871, 4. According to Ledebur, the catalogue 28 Van de Kasteele 1824 and Van de Kasteele n.d. was classified gruppenweise in chronologischer Reihen- 29 Van de Kasteele 1824, VII. See also the article of Rudolf folge: The chronological order was not related to the ar- Effert in this volume. rangement of the original Kunstkammer.

184 In the 1880s, director David van der Kellen Jr. The Hague to Amsterdam gives some informa- used the opportunity of the ‘Retrospective Ex- tion about what reached the new museum. It hibition’ – intended as an annex of the 1883 includes objects in the exotic category such International Colonial Exhibition in Amsterdam as blue and coloured chinaware, lacquerwork, – to transfer a part of his Netherlands Museum soapstone, ivory and enamels, Chinese glass, sil- of History and Art from The Hague to Amster- ver, bronze and sculpture. According to the de- dam. This Retrospective Exhibition consisting scriptions, most objects were abundantly deco- of Dutch antiquities, was set up in the almost rated. Annotations to numbers in the inventory completed building of the Rijksmuseum, and its indicate that some objects were redirected to display was in ‘picturesque’ style with a series of the Leiden museum: a grey earthenware bowl ‘period rooms’.34 with only a few incisions, simple lacquer-work It was intended that those objects should re- bins, incense burners, a tea set with mother-of- main in the Rijksmuseum after the exhibition pearl decorations on a black ground (damaged) closed. In The Hague however a home had and twelve ivory balls, hanging on red silken not yet been found for other parts of the Royal strings.37 The list of receipts of the National Eth- Cabinet of Curiosities. The archives of the Rijks- nographic Museum proves that several of the museum contain inventories that note the in- removal lists do not match. Not until 1888 and tended destination of the various objects. In the only after many negotiations was the division years 1883 to 1885, they were divided among of objects originating from the previous Royal several national museums in Leiden, the Nation- Cabinet settled by contract.38 al Museum of Natural History, the National Mu- What one can deduce from the records is the seum of Geology and Mineralogy, the Herbar- distinction that was made between ‘objects of ium, the National Museum of Antiquities and interest to industry and art’ and ‘ethnographi- the National Etnographic Museum (founded in cal objects’. Simple objects were categorized as 1880), in The Hague the Royal Cabinet of Coins ‘ethnographic’, and ornamented pieces made of and of course the new Rijksmuseum in Amster- precious materials, as ‘art’.39 The records do not dam.35 The inventories really are a mer à boire; mention any explicit criteria for distribution, but otherwise they might have given an interesting most probably the decisive factor was the idea insight into the disciplinary demarcations of the that the Netherlands Museum of History and time. For instance, in the removal list of the Art should serve as a force for the improvement Netherlands Museum the objects are accurately of the industrial arts. In fact, on occasion it is ac- described and measured, but the institutions to tually referred to as an ‘industrial museum’. The which they were dispatched are not mentioned. nineteenth-century view was that handicraft A striking feature is the division of exotic objects and industry could be advanced by the applica- into ethnographical objects and aesthetically valuable artefacts, both to be divided between 37 Haarlem, Rijksarchief Noord-Holland, Archief 476 (Rijks- museum) nr. 1020: Concept-inventaris van voorwerpen the National Ethnographic Museum in Leiden uit het Koninklijk Kabinet van Zeldzaamheden, die in de and the Netherlands Museum of History and inventaris van het Nederlandsch Museum van Geschiede- nis en Kunst zijn opgenomen. 36 Art. A draft inventory of the objects sent from 38 RMA, no. 1976: Stukken betreffende Verdeling der stukken van het Koninklijk Kabinet tussen het Ethnografisch 34 See for this exhibition, Tibbe 2000, 143-148, and Tibbe Museum en het Nederlandsch Museum voor Geschiede- 2003, 271-273. nis en Kunst, 1885-1886. See also Effert 2003, 212-223, 35 Haarlem, Rijksarchief Noord-Holland, Archief 476 (Rijks- and Lunsingh Scheurleer 1956. museum; abbreviated = RMA) nr. 1076 (Splitsing van het 39 RMA, no. 1076 (letter by L. Serrurier, Leiden, 4 Oct. 1887 Kon. Kabinet van Zeldzaamheden, 1883/1888). and draft response by D. van der Kellen Jr., w.d.), and 36 Not before the 1980s, and by careful comparison of ob- no.1120 (Inventaris van Kunstvoorwerpen, afkomstig uit jects and archives, did it become clear what actually ar- het Koninklijk Kabinet, die overgedragen zijn aan het Ne- rived at the Ethnographic Museum, see Effert 2003, 228 derlandsch Museum voor Geschiedenis en Kunst, 1883- (n. 85). 1884).

185 tion of ‘art’, thus combining the useful and the beautiful. ‘Applied art’ or ‘industrial art’ meant, art added to objects of industry and not as an intrinsic quality of design, as it is now. ‘Add- ed art’ mostly implied ‘ornament’,40 so a plain white earthenware bowl, or a simply constructed wooden chair, was not seen as ‘beautiful’ or ‘artistic’, whereas a bowl decorated with floral elements and gilt edging, or a seat decorated with woodcarving and fine upholstery had a good chance of being qualified as such.

‘National’ characteristics In the new museums of applied or industrial art, the meaning of an object was now decided with reference to ‘true principles of design’. They were expected to set a standard for both industrial designers and artisans and craftsmen for the various methods of applying art in their discipline. Additional guided tours and leaflets, the editing of photographs, instruc- tive pamphlets and books of plates were seen Fig. 4 Examples of ‘altdeutsche’ chairs, originating from the former Brandenburgisch-Preußische-Kunstkammer, in as essential activities of really active museums. Vorbilder-Hefte aus dem Kgl. Kunstgewerbe-Museum, The Vorbilder-Hefte aus dem Königlichen Kunst- Heft 5, Stuehle, 1. Lieferung, XVI-XVII Jahrhundert, Berlin 1889, Tafel 2 gewerbe-Museum provide a good example, a portfolio edition of photographs in thirty-three issues, edited between 1888 and 1905. Apart from the glass collection, the majority of the objects reproduced were acquired after 1880, and do not therefore come from the Branden- burg Kunstkammer.41 As for furniture, only a few Kunstkammer pieces were thought of use, apart from (fig. 4-5) the ‘Altdeutsche’ chairs and cabinets, which were considered to be ex- cellent examples (Marius Vachon added one of these in his 1883 publication on the museum).42 In general, the texts in the Vorbilder-Hefte are merely descriptive. Sometimes however, dis- creet evaluations were included, as in the vol-

40 Martis 1979, 105-107. 41 Vorbilder-Hefte, Heft 27 (1901), Geschnittene Gläser des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts, 1. 42 Vorbilder-Hefte, Heft 5 (1889): Stuehle. 1. Lieferung, XVI- XVII Jahrhundert, Tafel 9; Vorbilder-Hefte, Heft 17 (1895): Moebel des XVII. Jahrhundert, Tafel 11; Vorbilder-Hefte, Heft 6 (1889): Stuehle. II. Lieferung, XVII-XIX Jahrhundert, Fig. 5 Examples of ‘altdeutsche’ chairs, idem, Tafel 9 Tafel 11.

186 ume on Italian candlesticks which declared that they should be either triangular and taper like an antique tripod, or else square, with a stem achieved by combining a vase and a baluster (fig. 6). These basic structures in a wide range of variations could be found until late in the eighteenth century, but Den Bruch mit der al- ten Form fuehrt das Rococo herbei (…).43 How- ever only one out of this series of examples, a triangular variant stems from the Kunstkammer (acquired in the nineteenth century).44 Though not explicitly called Vorbilder-Hefte, until some years before the absorption of the Netherlands Museum of History and Art into the Rijksmuseum, its director Van der Kellen had published books of plates of old art objects, most of them medieval or early Renaissance. One of these, Nederlands Oudheden, had a similar purpose as the Berlin editions, as can be read in the subtitle: ‘Images of artefacts from ancient times, of most importance to science, art, and industry’. 45 In his museum, Van der Kellen preferred a mis- cellaneous display to a purely systematic and didactic presentation. He devoted a series of rooms to a specific period, composed of a mix Fig. 6 Example of a candlestick (attr. Andrea del Verrocchio, of copied decorations and reconstructions as c. 1480), constructed according to the ‘right’ principles; acquired by the Kgl. Kunstkammer in 1828, in: well as authentic fragments and objects. On the Vorbilder-Hefte aus dem Kgl. Kunstgewerbe-Museum, other hand, the central part of the collection Heft 7, Kandelaber XVI-XVII Jahrhundert, Berlin 1889, Tafel 3; the other half of this pair is now at the was presented as a series of separate precious Rijksmuseum Amsterdam (see note 24) objects, tapestries, pieces of furniture, ivories and a large amount of gold and silverware, but also Chinese porcelain and the Egyptian or Byz- with original Dutch artefacts.47 The educational antine ‘Hedwig glass’ from the previous Royal purpose, to give information on materials and Cabinet.46 Display cases were provided with style, here becomes somewhat nationalist in ‘electrotypical replicas’, partly made at the Re- spirit, as if the economics of national industry production Department of the South Kensing- was best served by exhibiting objects express- ton Museum. Most of the copies showed for- ing a national character. However, this pres- eign specimens, the intention being to enable entation was not intended as a lesson on the the public to compare examples from abroad cultural history of The Netherlands, as objects relating to Dutch history, also transported from 43 Vorbilder-Hefte, Heft 7 (1889): Kandelaber XVI-XVII Jahr- the Royal Cabinet to Amsterdam, were exhib- hundert, Einleitung. ited separately in a room devoted to ‘historical 44 Ibidem, Tafel 3. The candlestick mentioned in note 25 is the other half of this pair. memorabilia’.48 45 Van der Kellen 1861. See also Van der Kellen 1865-1870. 46 See for the Hedwig glass, the catalogue Ritsema van Eck/ 47 Van der Kellen n.d., 37-78. Zijlstra-Zweers 1993, 217-218. 48 Van der Kellen n.d., 117.

187 The 1907 catalogue of furniture in the Neth- unter französischem Einfluss, (…) mit allen ar- erlands Museum still shows Van der Kellen’s chitectonischen Formen spielende Willkür, with twofold orientation. However the quantity of all symmetrical arrangement being excluded furniture once belonging to the Royal Cabinet and every straight line banished. The room was or the Netherlands Museum at The Hague is however referred to with the positive adjective very limited, most of it having been obtained in anmutig.53 In nineteenth-century industrial mu- the post-Cabinet years. One of the few excep- seums in Northern Europe, late baroque and tions was a cabinet from Augsburg, dated 1650, rococo art were underrepresented, both in the donated by King William I.49 The introduction ‘modern’ South Kensington-inspired institutions to the 1907 catalogue is mainly informative as well as in the ‘antiquarian’ Cluny-style ones, about materials and techniques, although in where late medieval art and the national version some explanatory texts about particular pieces of Early Renaissance were predominant. an attempt is made to define the essence of Dutch furniture. According to the catalogue, This stylistic preference had its political and during the short period of the last quarter of moral background. Baroque and rococo styles the sixteenth century and the first half of the could be considered as belonging to the ancien seventeenth, the national product stood out as régime of international aristocracy, a decrepit superior to those of neighbouring countries, feudal civilisation that had been overcome by a Dutch furniture makers learn to break away modern, civic social order. Baroque exuberance, from ornament and to manufacture some- and licentious, elegant rococo ornament was thing outstanding without any decoration, associated with extravagance, effeminacy and apart from profiling (…). The Dutch sense weakness. By contrast, ‘national’ Early Renais- of austerity and rational commonsense pre- sance stood for contemporary bourgeois soci- vailed (…).50 ety, solid and imbued with an entrepreneurial Due to an excess of prosperity, it was said, de- spirit. cline set in after 1665.51 Consequently, objects At the same time, contemporary international of later date were hardly represented in the mu- competition was at stake. In France, starting seum. In the museum guide only two rooms out with the Restoration and stimulated by gov- of twenty seven are mentioned as containing ernment measures, the traditional art indus- decorations and objects dating from the late try revived. More especially, the French neo- seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. It rococo products for interior furnishing, both was only with the twentieth century that eight- stately and comfortable, found ready buyers eenth-century objects were acquired for the among the bourgeoisie in other countries, in museum.52 The Netherlands Museum was not spite of the campaigns against this ‘parvenu alone in this, as in the 1880s the Berlin Kunst bad taste’.54 The system of institutions of art gewerbemuseum only had a single rococo- and design education, museums included, was room, characterized in the museum’s guide as entirely dominated by capitalist international competition. France, with its long tradition in 49 This ‘Augsburg cabinet’ is treated extensively in: Catalo- gus 1952, no. 531. See also Baarsen 2000, 10-15. the luxury goods industry, was considered to be 50 Vogelsang 1907, LXXXIII. the most fearsome rival. French taste had to be 51 Ibidem. 52 Van der Kellen n.d., 116-121; De Stuers 1887, 6-7. This countered. concerns rooms no. 152 (with ‘historical memorabilia’, i.e. garments of deceased members of the Orange fam- As a Frenchman, Marius Vachon was pain- ily, and eighteenth-century gold leather upholstery), 152A (the ‘Chinese room’ originating from the palace of the Frisian Stadholders at Leeuwarden) and 153 (wood panel- 53 Kunstgewerbe-Museum 1881/1981, 36; Führer 1889, ling and decorative paintings). See for the ‘Chinese room’, 39-40; Führer 1891, 39-40. De Haan 2009. 54 See Walton 1992.

188 fully aware of this competition. His admiration (…) it will include collections of Oriental art, for Germany’s promotion of its industries was bronzes, laquery, faïence, porcelain, ivory, mixed with fear. In all the countries he visited textiles from China, Japan, Persia and India. on his tour of inspection in the 1880’s, includ- Most of these collections originate from the ing Denmark,55 Hungary and Russia,56 he was cabinet of the former Stadholder William. It most alarmed by the growth in German ex- is said they contain really wonderful pieces ports of industrial products. Even France itself of art (de véritables merveilles d’art) (…).62 was importing increasing quantities of German In spite of this reported re-evaluation of the old ceramics, glass, crystal and other luxury goods, cabinet, the Oriental Museum was not realized the field in which it had until recently been the and for the time being the objects remained in market leader.57 the stockrooms. The original concept in which Moreover, the French defeat in the French- the objects had been conceived of as embed- Prussian war haunted his memory. As a note of ded particles in a continuous universe, had warning, he quoted the Prussian prince royal, given way to the idea of progress in history, and who, at the inauguration of the new building of the global scope of this concept had in turn the Kunstgewerbemuseum in 1881, had stated given way to the ideology of national charac- that the 1870 military victory over the French ter. Finally, the admiration of rare things had was to be followed by an industrial and com- been displaced by the dominance of the profit mercial victory.58 Vachon himself also made use motive. In their now meaningless state of stor- of the rhetoric of war, speaking of an industrial age, they confirmed the myth of stagnation and ‘struggle’ or ‘war’ (guerre industrielle)59, and death in out-dated lumber-room collections. stressing that France urgently needed to set up a ‘national line of defence’.60 In Germany, museums of industry and art were a formidable resource in that struggle; they were thought of as arsenals providing artists and industrial enter- prisers with their weapons.61 And what was Vachon’s opinion of the Nether- lands Museum of History and Art he visited in the new Rijksmuseum building in Amsterdam in 1888? Surprisingly he approved of it; even if it was also une sorte de Cluny, the display was tasteful and sophisticated. However he considered that the proposed Oriental Museum in the still unoccupied wing of the new building was likely to be even better. At the time of Vachon’s visit, the directors of the Netherlands Museum and the National Ethnographic Museum were still in dispute over some objects, but Vachon rubbed his hands in anticipation:

55 Vachon 1888b, 6. 56 Vachon 1885, 43, 47. 57 Vachon 1882, 30-31; Vachon 1899, 189-190. 58 Vachon 1882, 31. 59 Vachon 1886, 105. 60 Vachon 1886, 110; Vachon 1890, 244. 61 Vachon 1899, 223. 62 Vachon 1888a, 109-114.

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